ben kissel

Even though last year felt like a decade or maybe even a whole century, it was just a whole year and we’re grateful to these 100 things in comedy keeping us going all 365 days of 2025.

Full disclosure: some of these items on this list are indeed sourced from our very own programming and being involved as the Artistic Director of The Lyric Hyperion, but, as always, this list is the epitome of us playing favorites. So, it only stands to reason to include said items.

1. Having finished his saga of comedy specials about his incarceration, Ali Siddiq had hours of brilliant stories on deck about his life outside of prison, one of which was the gorgeously funny, Two Sons. Extra points for Ali having the best cut suit in a special in all of 2025.
2. The preternatural instinct of South Park writer Toby Morton to not only buy trumpkennedycenter.org, but make a pitch perfect satirical site before Trump actually renamed the Kennedy Center to have his own name on it should garner the creation of a whole brand new award from The Webbys, WGA, etc.
3. With her live show Female Documentarian, the astounding Jessy Morner-Ritt pretty much one-ups Nathan Fielder by “shooting” a documentary of an audience member in a movie theater and simulcasting it to the big screen in that very same movie theater to that very same audience, all in real time.
4. Just as she did at the Roast of Tom Brady, Nikki Glaser absolutely demolished with her first outing as the host of The Golden Globes and will very likely be the highlight of the show on this go around in 2026.
5. Adult Swim’s The Elephant bets on some of the very best animators today to pull off their very own version of The Exquisite Corpse Project and the results are astounding and unforgettable and magnificently illuminating.
6. Richard Linklater’s vision of Jean Luc-Godard’s birth as a filmmaker in Nouvelle Vague both treasures the rebellious spirit necessary to the artist and offers up a look into how raucously funny it was to upend every possible convention of making a movie ever devised.
7. Punchlines fly every which way in Jay Jurden’s Hulu special, Yes Ma’am that brings a classical of the style of comedy into 2025 (as well as being on the right side of history).
8. In lieu of a State of the Industry Address from Andy Kindler, 2025 gave us Hotel Art Thief’s 2K25 full game SPEEDRUN, which does the job of hysterically cutting deep into the biz of comedy.
9. If there is an all powerful spirit of silliness within the realm of comedy, Emma Holland is in perfect tune with it in her special, Here Comes Mr. Forehead.
10. Heavenly Baba, Ismael Loutfi‘s tale of his dad trying to convert all of Florida to Islam in a classic car, is both one of the most unbelievable and funniest solo shows even though the current crop of comedic solo shows is probably the biggest it has ever been in history.
11. It truly is a near impossible feat to truly capture a comedian’s process in how they come up with their eccentric way to make people laugh and even doubly so for one of the most celebrated and most thoughtful comedians, but the documentary Are We Good? captures exactly that with the one and only Marc Maron.
12. Irish comedian David Nihill oh-so-cleverly weaves in a bunch of shout-outs for books into a stand-up comedy special, Shelf Help, that’s so enjoyable that you might actually pick up reading again.
13. While there is the exterior of explicit humor all throughout Jordan Jensen’s debut special Take Me With You, Jensen nimbly balances it with a three-dimensional sensitivity that had repeated pleasant surprises at every turn.
14. There’s kind of no way ignoring crowd work in 2025 comedy, but leave it to Nicole Byer to do An evening of crowd work as a special and have her irrefutable spunk and charm make crowd work enjoyable to watch again.
15. Motherf*cker, Jena Friedman‘s reflection on motherhood in dystopian times, is as powerful as it is side-splittingly funny and another monumental chapter in the works of Jena Friedman.
16. Guy Branum offers ups a treatise on gay existence (and extends it to existence in general) and gives the most thought-provoking and gut-bustingly funny answers to said treatise with his solo show, Be Fruitful.
17. Though it might be a tall order to imagine a heartwrenching and heartfelt and hilarious solo show about being one of the first viral stars on YouTube, Liam Kyle Sullivan does just that with his very first solo show, Wearing Kelly’s Shoes.
18. Youngmi Mayer makes the most wonderful combination of the divine and profane with her solo show, Hairy Butthole, that finds the deepest humor within intergenerational trauma in a lineage of a Korean woman and also honors the title of the show.
19. Every year, Seth Kirschner and Dylan Dawson achieve comedic alchemy with writing a pitch-perfect send up of a Hallmark Christmas movie in 24 hours, then have a giant cast read it cold on stage for one of the best comedy holiday traditions we know, Seth & Dylan’s 24 Hour Hallmark Holiday Movie Craptacular.
20. Vinny Thomas Works on a Hour for the Ronald Regan Center for Western Heritage has Vinny attempt to “church up” his material about being a gay POC (complete with live direction on stage) and is something we could watch over and over, endlessly.
21. Microplex is reimagining the movie going experience with über-fun curated, speciality one off screenings that range from having drinking games to reveling in a peanut gallery style viewing of a cult classic as opposed to just offering up 3-D or 4-D.
22. Hilary Campbell splendidly draws up a humorous meditation on life through the minutia of snacks in The Joy of Snacking leaving you with a deeper and more joyous appreciation of every bite of a snack that you’ll take from now on.
23. Even though Robin Tran has broken plenty of new ground with her unflinching perspective on being a Vietnamese-American Trans-woman, her new hour is something even more astounding as Robin rebounds from one of the most dire times of her life last year and dives deep into it, warts and all.
24. Never leaving a second of his act without a meta twist, Aussie comedian Reuben Solo should automatically be in the running to win the next Andy Kaufman Award.
25. No TV series in 2025 blended pathos and raucous humor so exquisite as Dying for Sex did, thanks to Liz Meriwether , Kim Rosenstock, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, and, of course, Molly Kochan.
26. Ruby Karp, inspired the singular way that Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings often includes a very participatory, costumed element that happens during the movie, created Shadowcast Improv to give other cult classics the very same treatment, albeit with the very best sketch and improv folks at her disposal.
27. With the WTF having finished, one might be looking for the next podcast where an amazing comedian gets into it with folks and you might want to look towards So True with Caleb Hearon.
28. We’ll take Moon Goon’s musical odyssey through Universal Citywalk in the aptly named Citywalk the Musical over any version of Wicked any day of the week.
29. Joe McAdam‘s Joe McAdamy Awards is both a flex by Joe of the amazing discoveries within the weird nooks and crannies of the Internet and the ridiculous spectacle that all awards should aspire to.
30. The spectacle of Sarah Lew and Chris Gale‘s Enormous Things, a riotious musical about the life and times and work of sculptor/artist Claes Oldenburg, is something we will remember and treasure forever. Also, this is the very best lampooning of Jeff Koons, the current day artist that most deserves to be roasted.
31. At a time when trans people have been under threat more so than in recent memory, Gentlemen’s Club with Laser Webber and Charlie James stands loud and proud and revels in a trans comedy show that celebrates its existence with some scotch, a cigar, and more debonair than what you know to do with.
32. Kami Dimitrova lets her clown flag fly with one of the more sublimely ridiculous stage performances we saw all year long in her solo show, Kami Girl.
33. So much accolade has been given to Julia Masli and her show hahahahahahaha and it’s all deserved. From experiencing it, you’ll believe the world can be healed through laughter (and community, of course).
34. The classiest version of Seth Rogen is up to his most artful hijinks of his career in The Studio, which manages the feat of humanizing executives, but still deservedly skewering them with little restraint.
35. Amy Silverberg’s debut novel First Time, Long Time dazzles with capturing the expanse of chaos of a young woman falling in love with a legendary radio personality as well as his daughter. Silverberg’s stand-up acumen is clearly threaded throughout, pinpointing the comedic absurdity of the situation at every juicy turn.
36. Despite the name of James Fritz’s latest album Old Man Yells at Crowd, Fritz remains a critical and hilarious lightning rod of a comedian that agilely punches up with the best of them.
37. Dave Merheje giving his play-by-play inner monologue during the taping of his special and intercutting within his actual special, Dawud, is just priceless.
38. Simon Gibson quilts together his very best bits for this stellar comedy album, The Wizard’s Boy, and, as the title might lead you to believe, lightning in a bottle.
39. Christine Wenc offers up a crucial and vital chronicle of the life and times of the definitive satirical news cornerstone that is The Onion with Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire.
40. Susan Morrison does a top notch job revealing the enigma, often only known by the sardonic impression of him, that is SNL creator Lorne Michaels in her book, Lorne.
41. The imagination and play of one Louisa Kellogg knows no bounds as evidenced by Shipping the Musical, a comedy with talking animals that dare go where Zootopia doesn’t (and is all the funnier for it).
42. Emily Browning one-upped herself from releasing her one-of-a-kind balloon-art-crowd-work special and pulled off what a live stage version of The Bear would be if it were actually a through and through comedy with her play, Hands.
43. Pee-wee as Himself serves as an exquisite monument to Paul Reubens and the comedy touchstone for so many of us, his iconic character Pee-Wee Herman.
44. With the mission statement of The Mark Twain Prize for Humor being how a comedian changed national discourse, Nathan Fielder takes another step in such a direction with The Rehearsal Season 2.
45. Post The Daily Show, Roy Wood Jr. has really gotten to blossom and simultaneously glisten with patina as displayed in his Hulu special, Lonely Flowers.
46. Keke Palmer and SZA make one of the most sparking comedy duos on the big screen for the buddy comedy of 2025, One of Them Days.
47. Robby Hoffman’s debut special Wake Up is aptly named for putting everyone on notice for the arrival of Robby and her crucial, loud, and unflinchingly funny gay comic voice, one perfect for this century.
48. SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night goes into the finest of details within the comedy behemoth of SNL and is, perhaps, one of the best looks into a legendary comedy show even with a mountain of books and docs about it already in existence.
49. Liza Treyger’s particular flavor of brash, honest comedy that’s indisputably fun gave us a bit of hope at the start of 2025 with her special Night Owl (which is beyond a tall order).
50. All hail Ziwe and her iconic, poised (and hilarious) fury that gave us some of the funniest interviews all year long (and the best depictions of Kevin Hart and former NYC Mayor Eric Adams).
51. The irresistibleness of Paddington, across all demographics imaginable, continued with the third installment of the film franchise, Paddington in Peru..
52. Despite having exited late night several years ago, Conan O’Brien still is as sharp as ever when hosting the Oscars and can host an awards show in a way where the awards themselves almost play second fiddle.
53. Alexi Wasser’s Messy is so wonderfully and confidently hellbent in its unhinged look at love/sex/dating and all of the glorious raunchiness that comes with it, one might not have any idea that it’s her feature debut.
54. Tim Robinson’s comedy, no matter what form it comes in, is the comedic drug that makes life in 2025 tolerable and thank goodness we got a big screen version of it with Friendship.
55. Conan O’Brien might very well be the most deserving recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for Humor in the last decade and the ceremony honoring his induction is further proof of that.
56. Kristen Schaal held a lone candle to blow out for the very final moments of legendary weekly comedy show, Hot Tub with Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal, which would have been completely heart-wrenching had she not mentioned that this candle has been burning for all 20+ years of the show (even though the Hot Tub crowd has never seen any such candle ever in the history of the show).
57. Though most of you might see her writing on SNL these days, the sweet and unabashed comedy of Rachel Pegram can be best enjoyed on her fantastic debut comedy album Silly, Loud, Delightful!
58. If there’s a patron saint comedian for the end times, it has been, is, and will continue to be Eddie Pepitone  with the proof in his latest special, The Collapse.
59. The Phoenician Scheme is probably the most screwball-y film in Wes Anderson’s oeuvre, potentially bordering on outright silly, but still with the all the ornate Wes Anderson trappings of a massively talented cast, sublime color palate, symmetrical cinematography, and hilariously subtle and prescient nods to these times in the real world.
60. In a day and age where comedy is often relegated to crowd work and “vibes”, Brad Wenzel dutifully and masterfully carries the torch for succinct joke writing and telling. See for yourself in his Don’t Tell set.
61. Though unceremoniously and immediately kicked off the air because Trump can’t take a joke (remember that he still refuses to take part in any sort of White House Correspondents Dinner), Jimmy Kimmel Live ended up staying on the air after enough folks decided to save free speech in America/cancel their Disney/Hulu subscriptions.
62. Luke Null and his latest special, Pretty Songs, Dirty Words, bravely (and with uproarious abandon) puts to bed the idea of guitar comedy being one note.
63. Though Brent Weinbach has been a paragon of alt comedy for decades now, his special POPULAR CULTURE, shows that he’s still leading the way.
64. Zach Zimmerman could have just rested on his laurels having only released a special at the Kennedy Center before Trump ruined every single aspect of it, but Surprise Me is one of the tightest hours of comedy from all of 2025 (and perhaps the gay affirmation one might need in these times).
65. Caitlin Reilly Bullies the Audience, in a way, was avant garde crowd work for how Caitlin manages to be comically aggressive though several of her own characters and yet have the entire audience want to play with her every step of the way.
66. Trae Crowder and his thick Southern accent continue to be the perfect comedy ambassador between the South and coastal elites as seen in his 2025 hour, Trash Daddy.
67. Having left her life as a war crimes lawyer at The Hague to be a comedian, Jess Salomon’s career trajectory might seem like a New Yorker cartoon, but her new special Sad Witch offers up so much more nuance and depth than a comic strip panel (as well as a great, timely chunk on being married to a Palestinian woman as a Jew).
68. Dana Gould, always with such precision and stinging punchlines, makes sure to impress on us all that every bit of the world right now is anything but Perfectly Normal.
69. We’ll reaffirm the full disclosure here that we’re a third of the team behind Lyric Hyperion’s newly launched production arm, Spesh, but it has earned (and deservedly so) such a blazing start with Joey Greer’s Teeny Tiny and Emily Browning’s Temporary, Beautiful.
70. Maddie Weiner is so damn funny that she managed to come up with a hilarious bit empathizing with incels in her Don’t Tell set from 2025.
71. Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin’s Splitsville nails what it’s like to do a slapstick rom com that’s perfect for the 2020s.
72. Geneva Rust-Orta makes being born out of artificial insemination, eating disorders, and having four moms seemingly so relatable and oh-so-funny with her very first special, Normal Father.
73. As comedy sets on late night are becoming increasingly rarer (connected to the traditional late night talk show possibly coming to an end), doing a tight five is also a lost art. Thankfully, unstoppable joke machines like Jay Jurden still do it right on The Tonight Show in 2025.
74. Caleb Hearon’s very first special Model Comedian was beyond long overdue, but maybe having your first special be an HBO special is the way to do it. In any case, Hearon unsurprisingly nails it with his cooly, acerbic style.
75. Eva Victor’s feature debut Sorry, Baby has such an uncanny deftness in handling all of its parts, the tense subject matter, its beautiful humanity, and unbelievable uncovering of laughs in the starkest and darkest parts of a woman’s life, we wouldn’t be surprised if Eva has to give more than a few acceptance speeches this upcoming awards season.
76. Nate Craig’s Married to It, for our money, was very likely the funniest, sharpest, and cleverest hour of comedy done in Las Vegas in all of 2025.
77. The workplace comedy that’s perfect for our particular brand of dystopian times might only be offered up by Tim Robinson and company with The Chair Company.
78. Where a number of adoptee comedians are getting a little hack with their adoption material, Ben Katzner gets into the finer comedic nuances of having white parents on his debut special Supple Harlot.
79. &y S&ford shows that the jokes of Andy Sandford will age like a fine wine since the amount of attention to detail is equal to that of a renowned vintner.
80. Ryan Sickler’s latest special Live & Alive might make cutting to black the new “drop the mic” (in addition to a beautifully woven hour of family stories and expertly timed callbacks).
81. Cameron Esposito could have just delivered a riveting hour on the discovery of their bipoloar disorder, but, with Four Pills, also gave us all a fantastic reimagining of the form of a comedy special on top of that.
82. Comedy derived from a “positive tip” is hard to come by, but leave it to grandmaster jokesmith Myq Kaplan to make a indelible comedy special that doubles as a splendidly sweet tribute to his partner, Rini.
83. The saga of the drama of Tim Robinson’s Spider League on Late Night with Seth Meyers makes up our favorite moments of late night this year.
84. Inspired in rebellion to Julia Masli’s decorated and ornate clown show, Mark Vigeant made the “upside down” version of hahahahahahaha with Welcome to Hell and it was every bit just as fun.
85. Give one of those Cannes-style ten minute standing ovation to South Park for doing the animation equivalent of spitting right in Trump’s face with every episode in what will probably be their most historic season yet.
86. Morgan Evans nails the perfect Microbudget from hell in writing/directing debut that rivals an episode of The Studio.
87. While it’s not advisable to include losing your place when recording your special, the sheer joy emanating from David Gborie and his super intimate crowd (David might be standing maybe two or three feet away from the front row AND is doing it in the round in a store) for his Gbirth of a Nation is indisputably fun and does the best job of capturing the electricity of a live crowd sparked by an indomitable comedian.
88. As it’s not that farfetched to say that Don’t Tell set is equivalent to a late night set these days, Amy Miller’s Don’t Tell is so flawless, wire-to-wire, that she would be invited to the couch were this the days of Johnny Carson.
89. We’re calling it here; Sam Evans will probably have the very best dead mom jokes in all of comedy for a long time thanks to his special, Down a Mom.
90. Joaquin Phoenix getting slapped near the end of the anarchic, neo-Western Eddington was amongst the hardest laughs we had in 2025.
91. Kumail Nanjiani’s long awaited, highly anticipated return to stand-up comedy with Night Thoughts meets the moment and shows that he still has quite the chops (and the muscles).
92. For someone as sweet as Beth Stelling, it takes a “special” kind of person to inspire Beth to do a whole special about how awful they are and that, in of itself, is something to behold with The Landlord Special.
93. With Father, Atsuko Okatsuka makes it crystal clear that she is a bonafide international comedy star (and has one of the best aesthetics in all of comedy).
94. As Clark Kent takes off his suit to be Superman, Sarah Sherman took off her SNL cap to take the stage as Sarah Squirm in all of her gory, in-your-face, sarcastic glory with her debut HBO special, Live + in the Flesh. Extra points for having living legend John Waters in your intro bit.
95. Mo Welch probably sets a record of using the biggest projector screen in a comedy special (until someone inevitably does a comedy special at The Sphere in Vegas) with Hollywood Forever, a very warm revisiting of Mo’s comedy career over the last few years.
96. For all the podcasts and stories that you’ve heard about hell gigs from all your favorite comedians, Mike Bridenstine pulls at the thread for one of the most infamous comedy sets of all time in his latest book Kansas City Comedy: The Unbelievable True Story of Stanford & Sons, Its Outlaw Owners and the Most Infamous Stand-Up Sets of All Time and gets more than what he bargained for (and then some).
97. The radiance of Amy Poelher is still alive and well in Amy’s talk sh-errr, podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
98. WTF with Marc Maron reached its self appointed conclusion this year, marking the end of an era of which Marc was at the very top of for pretty much the whole time.
99. At his most evolved phase yet, Bill Burr continues to dissect masculinity from the inside out like no one else with, Drop Dead Years.
100. Grand Theft Hamlet, a doc following two classically trained actors attempting to put on Hamlet in the digital universe of Grand Theft Auto, will probably forever be the funniest thing to come out of COVID times.